SCOOP 2021: Two $1m+ prize pools; Lex runs deep again

April 12, 2021

News

by Howard Swains

watch_later

6 Minute Read

Prize pools are booming in the 2021 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), but who is winning them? Here comes the latest SCOOP bulletin…

TODAY IN SCOOP

PKO draws the masses: The enormous SCOOP-28 event, which started on Saturday, played to a conclusion on Sunday night. There was a $1 million guarantee on the $1K “high” designation, with $700K on the “medium”, but it turned out that prize pools were into seven figures for both of them. “DGR.POKEHER” put New Zealand on the board for SCOOP 2021 in the $109 version, winning his country’s first title, along with $90,383, including bounties. Meanwhile Poland’s “MrTermo1021” won the high version, and picked up $150,328, including $65,362 in bounties. The prize pools in those tournaments were $1.081 million and $1.261 million, respectively, and there was even $354,927 in the pot for the $11 “low” version. With 36,217 entries, including 12,873 re-entries, “p0wer_player” of the Netherlands lived up to the screen-name and took it down, for $20,525, including bounties. Remarkably, these were Poland’s and the Netherlands’ first titles of this series too.

Lex runs deep again: After missing out on his first SCOOP tournament of the year by the narrowest margins on Saturday night, Lex Veldhuis climbed back in the saddle on Sunday for more of the same. Veldhuis entered the $1,050 SCOOP-31-H, among others, fired two bullets, but is now placed exactly middle of the pack of the 22 left heading into Monday. With $4,215 already locked up, Veldhuis will obviously be hoping for a spot at the final table and, possibly, the $85,430 first prize. It’s a tough remaining field, as you’d expect. Jens “Graftekkel” Arends, Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, David “dpeters17”, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Bert “girafganger7” Stevens and Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira are just some of the big names still involved. There were 481 entries in all. But that’s not all. Veldhuis is also still alive in the $1,050 6-Max (SCOOP-35-H). He is placed 31st of 36 (from 775 total entries) in that one. There’s $131,550 up top.

Nevanlinna shows two-card prowess too: Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna took SCOOP by storm this year when he won two tournaments in a single night on Thursday. Both of those were fixed limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournaments, where his specialism truly came to the fore. But Nevanlinna is obviously taking the Player of the Series race seriously, and he is also playing the big hold’em events. At time of writing, Nevanlinna is placed 1st of the 25 left in the $2K NLHE PKO (SCOOP-32-H), which will play to a winner on Monday. It’s not usually his game, but Nevanlinna is nothing if not versatile.

TODAY’S RESULTS

†inc. bounties
*denotes deal

STAT TRACKER

With only three events (ie, nine tournaments) finishing on Saturday, the stat tracker ticked only marginally upward overnight. But the huge Sundays finish soon, which means this time tomorrow there will be an explosion. As it is, prize pools are edging close to $35 million and winners have taken more than $5 million of that.

Entries: 476,876 (inc. 77,989 re-entries)
Prize pools: $34,650,035
First place payouts: $5,028,815 (inc. $839,981 in bounties)
Tournaments completed: 90
Tournaments ongoing: 15
Tournaments starting today: 12

(Note: Stats from completed tournaments only)

INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!

Elias “SinKarma” Gutierrez

We’ll be catching up with some of the stars of SCOOP to talk about their latest triumphs, including:

Elias “SinKarma” Gutierrez on winning title with 15,000 watching
Fagner “FagnerCR7” Brito one step closer to ambition of turning pro

And check out some player profiles of some of SCOOP’s all-time legends:

Calvin “cal42688” Anderson
Mike “SirWatts” Watson
Shawn “buck21” Buchanan
Connor “blanconegro” Drinan
Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira

TWITCH WATCH

“Am I the easiest person to bluff ever?” pondered Lex Veldhuis after this hand. He did just lay down trip aces, but do you think he was right?

Don’t forget, Lex can also put in the occasional bluff of his own…

COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

With Brazil still leading comfortably, and usual challengers such as the UK still straggling, we can focus a little on some of the newcomers to the leader board. The Netherlands won its first two titles at the weekend, while Poland and New Zealand also belatedly joined the party. We’re up to 25 countries total so far.

Latest standings:

19 – Brazil
13 – Russia
7 – Finland, UK
4 – Czech Republic, Norway, Romania, Sweden
3 – Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Montenegro
2 – Germany, Ukraine, Netherlands
1 – Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, New Zealand, Poland, Uzbekistan

TODAY’S ACTION

Plenty of the focus today will be on the Sunday majors, which are all very deep already. But it’s also time for the short deck specialists to take to the stage. The first 6+ tournaments of the series begin

1.05pm ET
37-L: $22 NLHE 6-Max, PKO, $300K Gtd
37-M: $215 NLHE 6-Max, PKO, $500K Gtd
37-H: $2,100 NLHE 6-Max, PKO, $500K Gtd

2.15pm ET
38-L: $5.50 NLO8 8-Max, $15K Gtd
38-M: $55 NLO8 8-Max, $50K Gtd
38-H: $530 NLO8 8-Max, $100K Gtd

3.30pm ET
39-L: $11 NLHE, $50K Gtd
39-M: $109 NLHE, $200K Gtd
39-H: $1,050 NLHE, $300K Gtd

5.05pm ET
40-L: $11 6+ Hold’em 8-Max, PKO, $20K Gtd
40-M: $109 6+ Hold’em 8-Max, PKO, $35K Gtd
40-H: $1,050 6+ Hold’em 8-Max, PKO, $75K Gtd

(All timings are ET)

LEADER BOARD LATEST

Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna already holds a significant lead in both the high and overall standings, and he’s also chip leading another high event going into Monday. This is far from a foregone conclusion, however. There’s a long, long way to go yet.

Here’s the latest standings:

Low
1 – andreyayo9, Canada – 225 points
2 – FONBET_RULIT, Russia – 215
3 – Alex_Vol, Russia – 210
4 – KaiHix, Netherlands – 205
=5 – aleksandrs10, Russia – 195
=5 – Kein Geloel, Czech Republic – 195
=5 – rawsignature, Norway – 195

Prizes: 1st – $5,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $2,500; 3rd – $1,500 (20 players rewarded)

Medium
1 – aleksandrs10, Russia – 255 points
2 – Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio, Finland – 220
3 – römpsä, Finland – 210
4 – JonzStars, Brazil – 205
5 – MonkeyBudg, Ireland – 195

Prizes: 1st – $10,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $7,500; 3rd – $5,000 (10 players rewarded)

High
1 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland – 355 points
2 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, UK – 315
3 – Dejan “dejanlc357” Kaladjurdjevic, Montenegro – 300
4 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK – 285
5 – ale6ka, Belarus – 255

Prizes: 1st – $15,000 + Trophy; 2nd – $10,000; 3rd – $5,000

Overall Player of the Series
1 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland – 700 points
2 – aleksandrs10, Russia – 600
3 – Ilari “Fabahaba” Tahkokallio, Finland – 590
4 – Patrick “pads1161” Leonard, UK – 500
5 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi, UK, 445

Winner: $25,000 + Trophy

See official SCOOP page for more details

WATCH! WATCH! WATCH!

PokerStars’ streaming army will be out in force during this SCOOP, with all of Lex Velduis, Spraggy, Fintan “easywithaces” Hand, Arlie “Prince Pablo” Shaban, Mason “Pyefacepoker” Pye and Georgina “GJReggie” James certain to be playing most, if not all, days.

The PokerStars central Twitch and YouTube account will also be streaming cards-up final table action five nights a week. Here’s the schedule.